when inability to sleep becomes fuel for cyclical thinking
by mattapod
Summary: A certain euphonium player can't sleep because her mind is way too occupied by a certain trumpet player.


_1:00 am_

Bright amber eyes were apathetically fixated on the ceilings, with nothing but determination to keep in its state.

It wasn't that the girl didn't want to sleep. She was simply so desperate to fall asleep that she had resorted to something stupid (she had deemed it that way, for there was no way to just _stop_ _thinking_ ) she had found on the internet. The method went as such:

 _Try not thinking about anything and keep yourself awake for as long as you can._

Clearly, it wasn't really helping, for Kumiko's mind latched itself onto whatever straw it could find, combining it into a giant haystack. It was currently swirling about the idea of a certain black haired girl.

 _Kousaka Reina_.

Said girl seemed to be imprinted in Kumiko's brain. The fact that the brunette was able to (extremely detailedly) paint out the trumpet player's visage unnerved her just the slightest bit. Kumiko had only seen her for a few days in concert band, few times in the hallways, and few times during class, after all.

Kousaka Reina's strange imprint in her mind seriously puzzled the euphonium player. The two weren't close, but not complete strangers either. They were... acquaintances? Old acquaintances? Old acquaintances that somehow met each other again? Old acquaintances that had sort of a fall out long ago and now don't even have the courage to talk to each other?

 _That last one was pretty one-sided_.

Kumiko sighed and flipped onto her side to stare at the walls now instead. She blinked twice, a growing frustration at her inability to sleep bubbling in her throat. She tossed yet again, this time staring out the window at the clouded sky. Her eyes averted towards her cabinet of books and CDs, falling upon the compositions of Shindo Masakazu. Kumiko's mind now switched gears to reminiscing when she first picked the euphonium, to when she joined the concert band at her old school, to the Prefectural, to...

 _Kousaka Reina._

The image of the trumpet player's tear-streaked face resurfaced in her mind as clearly as ever. Kumiko shut her eyes tightly, fruitlessly trying to get the black haired girl out of her head.

 _2:30 am_

Kumiko pushed aside her blanket, shimmering to the very side of the bed where it was still cool. The heat of being under the blanket and her own temperature had slowly become unbearable. She curled up into a ball to prevent herself from falling off the bed.

"I need to sleep," the euphonium player muttered to herself, a command directed straight at her brain.

However, it seemed that her brain was, for whatever reason, abnormally hyperactive and disobedient that day. It ignored its owner's order and continued its journey into the memories of the past four days. After a few minutes of pondering, it settled on Hazuki and Midori.

A small involuntary smile made its way onto Kumiko's lips upon thinking about her two dorky and bubbly friends. Hazuki was certainly something, giving the euphonium player a nickname within five seconds of meeting her. She was always so energetic, something that the euphonium player wish she could be. Kumiko went on and thought about Midori and her obsession with her contrabass. A chuckle erupted out of her throat. They were dorky and bubbly alright.

Her train of thought followed the first few days of high school chronologically, starting from the performance of the juniors welcoming performance, to the visiting the concert band, to... to...

 _Seeing Kousaka Reina._

Yet again, as if in an endless circle, Kumiko's string of thought came upon its starting point again.

How many times has it been, now? Two? Three? The euphonium player didn't want to count, for ten or twenty more cabooses of thoughts headed towards the interactions with the trumpet player appeared.

 _Might as well_ , Kumiko thought, allowing her brain to pry at the directions it was headed at, completely giving up on trying to fall asleep.

 _4:00 am_

Plus, somewhere during the euphonium player's trip towards the Kousaka-Reina-Ville of Kousaka Reina's, she stopped to admire the trumpet player's features and ponder upon her recent enigmatic acts.

Kumiko was fascinated by the black, flowing hair of the said girl. She did notice herself studying it from time to time. No, it wasn't creepy, at least in the euphonium player's opinion.

Kousaka Reina's character was a completely different matter. The girl was such a puzzle to Kumiko, it became kind of frustrating, but refreshing at the same time. The trumpet player was constantly sending mixed messages to the euphonium player. It was seriously making herself doubt her past, and her ability to read people correctly.

Most of the uncertainty came from the brunette's own overthinking, however. Sometimes Kousaka Reina would make it seem as though she and Kumiko never had any interaction in the past. Sometimes the euphonium player would become so frantic about the fact that she might've said something wrong and irritated the trumpet player.

 _"Sounds like something you would say."_

The enigmatic smile that came after that statement really, really, confused Kumiko. She couldn't tell whether the trumpet player was mad or not during that time.

The more she pondered upon that simple sentence, the more awake she seemed to get, and the more she thought about the trumpet player.

 _Kousaka Reina_ really was imprinted in her brain.

 _8:00 am_

"Kumiko."

The euphonium player forced her eyes open to glance at a very worried Hazuki and Midori. She sighed, putting her head back down on the table. Why is it that she wanted to sleep now, when she couldn't sleep at all last night?

"Kumiko, what _did_ you do yesterday?"

Said girl averted her eyes to the indirect culprit of her insomnia. Kousaka Reina was straight across the classroom, watching the three interact with each other. They caught each other's eyes, but none of them looked away.

Kumiko then closed her eyes, not bothering to answer Midori's question as she drifted off to sleep in a position that would make her back very, very painful later on.


End file.
